A 17th-century Spanish writer, Alonso Hernández del Portillo, asserts that "the city contained many tides and fountains of very sweet and healthy water" and that "fountains of fresh water could be seen spouting out of the sea near the foot of the Rock", possibly referring to a spring at a fault called the Orillon (at the site of the later Orillon Batteries) in the north-west face of the Rock.